Outsource FEEMA to Wal-Mart?
At Wal-Mart,Emergency PlanHas Big PayoffBy ANN ZIMMERMAN and VALERIE BAUERLEIN
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 12, 2005; Page B1
The Federal Emergency Management Agency could learn some things from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
On Wednesday, Aug. 24, when Katrina was reclassified to a storm from a tropical depression, Jason Jackson, the retailer's director of business continuity, started camping out in Wal-Mart's emergency command center. By Friday, when the hurricane touched down in Florida, he had been joined by 50 Wal-Mart managers and support personnel, ranging from trucking experts to loss-prevention specialists.
On Sunday, before the storm made landfall on the Gulf Coast, Mr. Jackson ordered Wal-Mart warehouses to deliver a variety of emergency supplies, from generators to dry ice to bottled water, to designated staging areas so that company stores would be able to reopen quickly if disaster struck.
For the rest of this story, check out the first comment on this post.
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 12, 2005; Page B1
The Federal Emergency Management Agency could learn some things from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
On Wednesday, Aug. 24, when Katrina was reclassified to a storm from a tropical depression, Jason Jackson, the retailer's director of business continuity, started camping out in Wal-Mart's emergency command center. By Friday, when the hurricane touched down in Florida, he had been joined by 50 Wal-Mart managers and support personnel, ranging from trucking experts to loss-prevention specialists.
On Sunday, before the storm made landfall on the Gulf Coast, Mr. Jackson ordered Wal-Mart warehouses to deliver a variety of emergency supplies, from generators to dry ice to bottled water, to designated staging areas so that company stores would be able to reopen quickly if disaster struck.
For the rest of this story, check out the first comment on this post.
posted by Howard at 1:27 PM
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Then, when the hurricane knocked out Wal-Mart's computerized system for automatically updating store inventory levels in the area, he fielded phone calls from stores about what they needed. He also alerted a replenishment team to reorder essential products, such as mops and bleach. And by Tuesday, scores of Wal-Mart trucks, some escorted by police, were setting out to deliver 40 generators and tons of dry ice to company stores across the Gulf that had lost power.
Katrina is the biggest natural disaster Wal-Mart has ever had to confront. Initially, 126 of its stores, including 12 in the New Orleans metropolitan area, and two distribution centers were shuttered because they were in Katrina's direct path. More than half ended up losing power, some were flooded and 89 have reported damage.
But by this past Friday, all but 15 of the idled stores had reopened. From Boutte, La., to Pass Christian, Miss., Wal-Mart frequently beat FEMA by days in getting trucks filled with emergency supplies to relief workers and citizens whose lives were upended by the storm.
Wal-Mart's speed in responding to Katrina underscores the extent to which it and other big-box retailers like Home Depot Inc. have become key players in responding to natural disasters. Whereas FEMA has to scramble for resources, Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart has it owns trucks, distribution centers and dozens of stores in most areas of the country. It also has a specific protocol for responding to disasters, and it can activate an emergency command center to coordinate an immediate response.
In the short term at least, the hurricane has helped boost Wal-Mart's tattered image, damaged by a major sex-discrimination suit and allegations that it provides workers stingy pay and benefits.
The 33-year-old Mr. Jackson, who has an undergraduate degree in emergency management and a masters in security management, is effectively the quartermaster-general in Wal-Mart's efforts to provide supplies -- and quickly revive sales -- in areas hit by hurricanes, tornadoes or floods.
"People know they can get what they need at Wal-Mart," said Richard Stinson, manager of the Wal-Mart supercenter in Laplace, La., as he walked the aisles of his packed store late last week. "It's because of what we can supply, our ability to get the merchandise in the building, the associates to get it on the shelf." Still, he noted, there are still items -- mops for flooded floors, paper plates and cups, socks, underwear, air mattresses -- he can't keep on the shelves.
The store on Highway 61, the main street in Laplace, lost power and water like all its neighbors in suburban New Orleans. Mr. Stinson's first call from his cellphone was to Mr. Jackson's emergency center. The center sent six loss-prevention employees, who helped secure the building and merchandise, assisted by local sheriff's deputies who kept watch during the first dark nights.
The emergency center also arranged to send generators and got Mr. Stinson's list of immediate needs. Laplace, which is 30 miles west of New Orleans, suffered comparatively little flooding and damage, but it became a refuge for evacuees who had. The center also supplied such goods as cereal, peanut butter, crackers and water to area shelters.
The store regained power four days after Katrina. Employees showed up for work in small but growing numbers, two immediately after the storm and 200 by late last week, out of a total of 407. Some employees came from other Wal-Mart-owned stores, including Stephen Cortez, an employee at a shuttered Sam's Club in hard-hit Metairie, another New Orleans suburb.
The store, like others up and down the Gulf Coast, has lines of people waiting to come in. Late last week, more than 100 people waited in 95° heat for their turn to shop. The store didn't sell its small supply of ice, keeping it instead to cool water for waiting customers. Local deputies guarded the line to keep people from cutting in. At the request of local law enforcement, the store didn't sell alcoholic beverages for the first three days after it opened.
Edmond Collins Jr., 37 years old, and his wife, Kywana, 29, have come every day to restock supplies for his family and the 14 people staying at his cousin's house. "We're just buying food to survive," Mr. Collins says.
After the storm hit, Mr. Jackson also took a call from Brian Boney, a district loss supervisor from a part of Louisiana that hadn't been hard hit. Mr. Boney volunteered to inspect stores in ravaged areas of Gulfport and Pass Christian, Miss., spending the night in his car. He reported back to Mr. Jackson that Wal-Mart needed to dispatch a full trailer -- 8,000 gallons -- of bottled water and ice for police and emergency workers in the area.
But even as Mr. Jackson continued to reroute trucks and take calls for emergency supplies in the days after Katrina struck, he also monitored a growing storm off the coast of Japan, where Wal-Mart owns a controlling stake in the Seiyu retail chain. And this past weekend, he was glued to his computer again, this time keeping tabs on Ophelia, off the coast of Florida.
In addition to refilling its stores, Wal-Mart has donated $3 million in basic supplies like diapers and toothbrushes to relief centers in three states. The National Guard and relief agencies also "commandeered" 20 trucks filled with water and other merchandise, according to a federal relief worker who didn't want his name used. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will pay Wal-Mart $5 million for that merchandise and has a contract to be paid for supplying more.
Sheriff Bob Buckley of Union Parish, La., has nothing but praise for Wal-Mart's role. About 600 law-enforcement officers from around the state gathered in Gonzalez to start rescue operations, he says, but they had no supplies. They called Wal-Mart the day after the hurricane hit and two days later, they got two truckloads of flashlights, batteries, meals ready to eat, protective gear and ammunition.
And when did FEMA arrive? "Who?" Sheriff Buckley asks.
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